Stock Pickers Fell Flat In 2013

Last year certainly provided active managers with plenty of opportunities to outperform, and it’s worth examining if they really did.

For example, while the S&P 500 Index returned 32.4 percent, Netflix (NLFX), the top performer in the index, returned 297 percent. Two other stocks, Micron Technology (MU) and Best Buy Co. (BBY) returned more than 200 percent.

Another nine stocks returned more than 100 percent. And 10 others returned more than 90 percent. The average return of the top-25-performing stocks of the S&P 500 was about 120 percent, or about 88 percentage points above the return of the index.